In the Japanese version:
神々 (Gods)
古代人 (Ancients [people])
神々のいさん (legacy of the Gods)
古えのもん (ancient or old gate)
古えの城 (ancient or old castle)

In the English version:
Ancients
Ancients
Legacy of the Ancients
Gate of the Ancients
Castle of the Ancients

Thus, it would seem the English version blends other things and the Ancients together.

Edit: Actually, it seems the Japanese version mentions "descendants of the Gods" and "legacy of the Ancients" at times. Prompt is where the descendants of the Ancients live but it also gets called the country of the Gods (Metapha/Metaphor gets called that too). Maybe they're the same after all?

Edit Aug 31:
(I unfortunately can't place these in spoilers because those don't allow enough width.)

Notes:
Birdler: It might be a portmanteau of bird + battler (baado & batoraa -> baadoraa)
Idaten: Apparently a deity who runs quickly
Piment: French for pepper
Saint's staff: "Saint" in this case is referring to a person

But now I am feeling a little betrayed by Sega. All these years I read a "wrong" story of the Shining Force. But it is good to know that the original is better than the english version - I would feel realy bad if the original was worse.

But now I am feeling a little betrayed by Sega. All these years I a "wrong" story of the Shining Force. But it is good to know that the original is better than the english version - I would feel realy bad if the original was worse.

No betrayal on Sega's part; it's just that English words take up more space than Kanji. You've been betrayed by the Roman alphabet!

We're going to be working on this on a wiki I've created some months ago called Learning Languages Through Video Games (LLTVG). There's a small stumbling block, though: although I have permission from Mew seeker to use his script, I don't have permission from Gryz, who I believe made the script that Mew seeker's is based on. I've sent a PM to Gryz, but, well, since Gryz hasn't posted since 2005, I dunno if I'll get a response... ^^;

Battle 1 (Ancient Gate):Max-dono! Allow me to have a word with you about facing battles!

I hear you are quite strong, but your experience in actual combat is still lacking. Please refrain from recklessness such as charging into the enemy alone. A hermit priest resides close to the Ancient Gate. Ask for his help in case you need it.

Battle 3 (to Alterone):If there are fliers such as giant bats among the enemy, you'll immediately be overtaken since due to their high mobility. Please give sufficient attention to battle preparations. Furthermore, should you feel it to be dangerous, don't overdo it and order a withdrawal! That is also a battle tactic.

Battle 4 (in Alterone):Mages and archers specialize at attacks from afar. Advance your troops in a way to not get hit by attacks from the other side of obstacles such as rivers.

Battle 5 (to Manarina):Weakness to flames is a characteristic of undeads such as zombies. Use the mages' Blaze effectively.

Battle 6 (Cave of Darkness):For battles in narrow places such as the insides of a cave, advancing your troops while taking a good look at the terrain and making sure of the positions of the enemy would be a good idea.

Battle 7 (Circus):Max-dono! Although your allies have been increasing, it is still too early to take it easy. Moving without dispersing your allies too much would seem safest.

Battle 8 (Shade Abbey]:Mages are very powerful, but there are limits even to magical powers. Conserve your magical powers so that you are able to use magic at crucial times.

Battle 9 (in the quarry at Bustoke):It seems your flying allies have increased. Use them assertively. By the way... Priests have trouble growing due to their poorness at combat. Instruct them to accumulate experience by using their healing magic as much as their magical power allows them to.

Battle 10 (to Pao Bridge):Battles in forests will become battles of attrition due to movement taking time. Taking terrain effects into consideration while fighting would be wise...

Battle 11 (on Pao Bridge):A wooden bridge is narrow. If you try to cross is carelessly, you will be picked off by snipers. You should have flying allies back you up from nearby.

Battle 12 (Pao Prairie):There is no refuge on the vast prairies of Pao. Fighting while protecting each other without dispersing your allies would be a good idea.

Battle 13 (Balbazak's fortress):I shall teach you a countertactic to the enemy's archers... Against long-range attacks, using our own long-ranged mages and archers could be a good idea... You could use fliers too, but have healers positioned nearby.

Battle 14 (Ulan Bator's port):Have you been properly using battle tactics to consolidate the strenｇth of your troops? It is the most basic of battle tactics.

Battle 15 (first battle at sea):The enemy is attacking from both the air and the sea. If you are distracted by one side, you'll be attacked from the rear. Dividing your allies into two groups and having them each go in opposite directions would be a good idea here...

Battle 16 (Frying Pan Reef/Ring Reef):I shall teach you a battle tactic to confuse the enemy. Divide your allies into several groups and have them each advance in a different direction.

Battle 17 (second battle at sea):It's a battle at sea again. My advice is the same as before. Divide your troops in two groups!

Battle 18 (to Dragonia):Max-dono, around here, the forests are dense and the mountains are steep. It's terrain in which advancing will be difficult. Let's include flying allies into our troops before we fight.

Battle 19 (in Dragonia):Mmhmm... This village has very strange terrain and the land is inclined. I feel as if we've strayed into a different dimension... Huh? My advice? Well, yes... Do not do something as foolish as fighting a strong enemy alone...

Battle 20 (to Demon Castle):It seems there'll be a very long battle until our destination. Please use magic carefully so that you are not out of breath midway. I feel it would be a good idea to have everyone carry medical herbs.

Battle 21 (inside Demon Castle):... I sense the power of mysterious magic... The evil mage, Mishaela of Runefaust... She is said to be an unrivalled user of dark magic... Please be careful.

Battle 22 (to the Ancient Tower):This area covered in dense forests will be difficult to get through. Acting in a group would be a good idea here after all...

Battle 23 (at the Ancient Tower):It'll be difficult to assault a complex structure if you don't have support from the air. Having as many fliers as possible with us would be a good idea.

Battle 24 (in Metapha):Max-dono! If there are ones who can promote, doing so now would be a good idea. I don't think there are any disadvantages to promoting early...

Battle 25 (to Runefaust):Runefaust's strength is also increasing more and more. Prepare yourself and face the battle! Sending out the less experienced to battle after consolidating your best defenses would be a good idea.

Battle 26 (inside Runefaust castle):There is no doubt that Runefaust's last defenses are its chosen elites. We too must send out our best.

Battle 27 (against Ramladu):Dubious machines have started to appear. I don't at all know how to fight them, but... we'd better force our way through them...

Battle 28 (against Colossus):We're finally breaking into the Ancient Castle... Allow me to say it once more! Should you feel it to be dangerous, don't overdo it and withdraw by using your Return spell...

Battle 29 (against Darksol):... There is no longer anything for me, Nova, to tell you. Fight to the full extent of your strength!

tggrng123 wrote:I'm not sure if I missed it but is there anyone here taking this information and making a patch currently?

Actualy I've been doing something close to that.In fact, I'm working with this translation, retranslating it to (brazilian) portuguese and inserting it to the rom with rubix editor. As far as I know, it will be the first BR translation of this game. And it's in great style, as it comes from the original japanese text.

No worries. It takes me hours to translate a good-sized paragraph in Japanese, and I can't manage that without a dictionary - I'm really not fluent at all.

Let me put it this way, then - I wish some of our native speakers would take the time and care you do with the language; you write it better than a lot of the people that grew up speaking and writing it do.

As I'd say my first attempt at chapters 3+ was pretty clumsy, I decided to try again, now with somewhat more experience. I'm starting from chapter 1 this time and I've thus far redone it up until Max is about to leave town. I'm not sure how my interest will hold since it's ridiculously time-consuming. Since there were problems due to the high count of characters to be contained in each post last time, I'll just place the text on pastebin and link it here.

Intro + incomplete chapter 1 (original JP and localized EN scripts can be found in mew seeker's first few posts in this topic):http://pastebin.com/c3Yen9bX

Edit: Added battles 1&2 and partially the return to Guardiana (the initial town portion, before the story events)Edit 20120827: Added a bit more of the return to Guardiana (a bit past the end of the story events)Edit 20120901: Tried making a Google Spreadsheet version so that it can show the original scripts and the translation side by side, but it takes a bit too much time and made some slight changes to the beginning of the pastebin version while going through it again for the spreadsheetEdit 20120907: Made more minor changes to the pastebin version, made more progress on the spreadsheet (up to about midway in the town NPC before the first castle events), added another column for comparing the old and new retranslations, and started color-coding some cells as so:blue: minor fixes to the meaning or wording from old to newpurple: more drastic fixes to the meaning from old to newgreen: typo fixes in mew seeker's script

Does anyone here besides me know that Chip (Chris)'s race originally was called "Gelfling" (in the JP version and in Shining & The Darkness/"Shining in the Darkness", and not a "Cantor"; and their design was inspried by the Gelfling race in the movie "The Dark Crystal", and Kokichi is inspired by a goblin with a mechanical wings contraption on his back that appeared briefly in the movie "Labyrinth"?

Very interesting! Thank you very much Mew seeker and Siel, I've been wanting to read a proper translation of SF1 for a long time. I've been wondering how many of the story and script "changes" in ROTDD actually came from the Japanese SF1. I'm a bit disappointed that the backgrounds of Max and Cain aren't explored as much as I hoped (where are they from, and do they have any family other than each other?), though. And the same goes for Darksol. Looks like they didn't come up with a background for him until SF2.Speaking of translations, isn't anyone working on one for SF2? We (the fanbase) have translated SF1 and SF3, but not SF2 (as far as I know), even though it's known that that game's official translation was pretty shoddy, too. I wonder if it excluded major plot points like SF1's did?

Mew seeker wrote:Actually, "Shining Orb" might have been closer or at least sounded coolerbut considering the game is named "Shining Force",it's probably better to not use the word "Shining" carelessly in the translation.So I went with "brilliant", in the "lot of light" sense,not the "super smart" one. : P

Mew seeker wrote:[Otrant:]Max, listen well.The brilliant orb is not a thingthat is said to be able to fall into the hands of anybody....only the people/person chosen by the spring....it is so.I shall confer to your (plural) force/army the nameof the people ruling the power of light...... Shining Force!

Does anyone else get the impression that Otrant came up with the name "Shining Force" based on the orb's name, meaning that "Shining Orb" might be a more accurate translation than "brilliant orb"?

Siel wrote:Cain:Someone will be sacrificed for us to survive... I can't stand something like that. That's not a man... [The one called Max?]... I know him well...

Could it be that what Kane is actually saying is that Max isn't the kind of man who stands there doing nothing while others sacrifice for him? That would make more sense. I even checked ROTDD, and that's more or less what he says in it.

Cullsoft wrote:I'm not sure what's more awesome - the work done to get that chapter translated, or...

...how it seems to explain that Max and Cain are part of a lineage destined to stop Darksol, rather than being part of some time-travel theory.

What are you talking about?

Martin III wrote:

Trovador @ Tue Oct 19, 2010 6:21 am) wrote: This topic is amazing!

But now I am feeling a little betrayed by Sega. All these years I a "wrong" story of the Shining Force. But it is good to know that the original is better than the english version - I would feel realy bad if the original was worse.

No betrayal on Sega's part; it's just that English words take up more space than Kanji. You've been betrayed by the Roman alphabet!

That doesn't explain why the translators replaced many lines with totally different ones, or why they excluded major plot points (and even made some BS up), or why the official translation has so many mistakes and grammatical problems, or why SoA was too lazy to edit the scripts to allow for more characters.

Last edited by Redd on Thu Jan 24 2013 7:13am, edited 4 times in total.